- Was a classmate of Martin Luther King at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
- Played bass on Aretha Franklin's first four recording sessions for Columbia records.
- Played bass for two songs on Bob Dylan's second album ("The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan"), according to Dylan's autobiography, "Chronicles".
- Uncle of Malcolm D. Lee.
- Brother of Consuela Lee Morehead.
- Received his B.A. from Morehouse College in 1951.
- In 1893 his grandfather William Edwards the Snow Hill Normal & Industrial Institute in Snow Hill, Alabama. He convinced the owner of the R.O. Simpson plantation to grant him land for the school.
- His grandfather William Edwards was an acquaintance of Booker T. Washington.
- His wife Jacquelyn Shelton graduated from Spellman College, she became a school teacher.
- Performed on albums by Harry Belafonte, Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin.
- Toured with Odetta as her bass accompanist.
- His mother Alberta was a concert pianist.
- Was the house bassist at the Gate of Horn jazz club located in the basement of the Rice Hotel in Chicago.
- His father Arnold was bandmaster at the Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Florida which was formally known as the Daytona Literary & Industrial Training School for Negro Girls.
- Lee was involved in many releases from the Strata-East jazz record label, including directing the 1980 album The New York Bass Violin Choir.
- Lee was arrested on October 25, 1991, in Fort Greene for carrying a small bag of heroin during a police drug sweep of a park near his home. Lee would later say of his arrest, "I'm glad I was arrested, It woke me up.".
- Though Bill Lee scored his son's first four movies, they had a falling out shortly after the arrest on drug charges. By 1994, the elder Lee said they had not spoken in two years.
- In 1951, he graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.
- On Gordon Lightfoot's song Oh, Linda (recorded 1964), Lee is also the only musician other than Lightfoot's voice.
- Brother of Grace Lee Mims, Arnold Lee Jr, Clarence Lee, and Leonard Lee.
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